How To Play Short Handed Poker

HOW TO PLAY SHORT HANDED POKER

If you ever played poker online in a full ring game, only to have some of the players move on later, and leave you with only 2-3 other players in the game, you know what I'm talking about.

In online poker, where table selection plays an even more important role than it usually does, players come and go, to and from tables at the click of a button. If they see you playing dominantly and/or extra aggressively, chances are, they decide they stand a better chance playing at some other table. In a situation like this, you'll soon find yourself stuck with three or four other players and you'll notice the game is not the same anymore.
This is what they call 'short handed' game.

As the game speeds up, several things happen. You need to reconsider the hands you commit on and also the hands you're willing to take all the way down the stretch. The game will loosen up, an you'll have to act loose yourself or risk being bullied out of your pot equities time and again. In a full ring game, you can let others do the betting for you, more often than not, you'll find somebody willing to do it.

In a short handed game, you'll be forced to take the betting into your own hands. In that respect, it would be safe to say that short handed poker is where skill really matters. After all, poker is a betting game, isn't it? and you can't always expect someone else to do the betting for you.

Loosening down a bit is the first step you need to take, getting more aggressive is the second. Lowering your hands-standards is the third. Obviously no matter how well you play, how aggressive you are and how well you speculate certain situations, you have to be aware of the fact that two out of three flops won't even hit you with a pair. Many players don't know this. These guys are going to be your victims.

On top of these, you need to pay attention to one more factor: the speed of the game. The increased speed means that anything you do will have far bigger consequences than it usually would. The mistakes you make, will impact your bankroll harder, but so will good plays that you manage to pull off.

If you were wondering why starting and showdown hand standards had to be lowered, the explanation is simple. With fewer people in the game, the chance of someone showing down a rock solid hand obviously decreases. If you don't believe me, hang around at a short handed online poker table in observer mode, and see for yourself. In a short handed game hands are often won on as little as a pair or a high-card.

What I told you so far about short handed play seems pretty straight forward, right? Well...this is the theory. In practice, things are way more complicated.

It's not enough to simply pick up the pace, bet more, raise more and see the flop on hands you otherwise wouldn't consider. A skilled short handed player knows when he has the best hand, knows how his opponents will react, and he also knows when to slow down with the betting and when to up the pace.

Obviously, no poker player is born with all these abilities ready to be put to work. It takes a lot of practice and a lengthy learning process before you can call yourself a reasonable short handed player. Until you're no good at short handed play, however, you can't really call yourself a poker player, and since short handed play is even more important in online poker, you're better off sticking with online casinos until you get this part of your game right.

Rookie players who know a few things about short handed play, often feel overwhelmed by the enormous amount of information they have to deal with in an extremely short period of time. Processing all that information in order to churn out the right decision is no child's play.

Getting an accurate read on individual opponent is also imperative. You need to vary your play according to which player you're up against in each particular hand. By achieving this, you'll also prevent the opposition from getting a read on you.

by James West